Lion Green Road Wins
Lion Green Road in Croydon has been named the 2026 RIBA Stirling Award Winner.
Only once before has the RIBA Stirling prize ever been awarded to a council housing project, when Goldsmith Street in Norwich won in 2019, for its rows of low-energy brick terraces, designed by Mikhail Riches Architects and Cathy Hawley (See the Guildford Society Architecture Lecture 2026) Lion Green Road is different in that it the dwellings are 50% affordable rented at local housing allowance rates and 50% for private rental. This differs from the Norwich project which is social housing.
Designed by Mary Duggan Architects, with Ruff Architects, it is a model of council-led housebuilding, which utilises a sloping site to great effect where five blocks of flats have been inserted, sheltered by mature trees.
The original brief asked for 80 homes, arranged as a conventional model of suburban terraces. The architects proved that 157 flats, across five blocks, could be accommodated whilst retaining the mature trees and bluebell woodland on the site. Although each Block of flats is to an identical design, which has allowed the construction budget of £2,500/sq metre to be achieved, due to their non rectangular floor plan they are orientated in different ways to give variety to the scheme. The flats have also been designed to be dual aspect and have inset (Logia) balcony spaces.
The RIBA president, Chris Williamson commented on the scheme “At a time when we urgently need to deliver more homes Lion Green Road shows that density can be achieved without compromising the quality of the places we create. Through a consistent specification, with subtle variation in height and orientation, it offers housing at scale without uniformity.”
Lessons for Guildford
Guildford has a number of Flat scheems which adopt very strict rectuliniar forms rely on projecting Juliet Balconies and in many cases create long walls of development with little public or Green Space surrounding them.
Lion Green Shows that a council can develop a interesting design at reasonable cost which also provides a greater generosity of light and space.
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